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Small cell queens & NICOT

I use the NICOT for queen production. I have also converted numerous hives to 4.9 small cell as part of my own little test to see if there's anything to the 4.9/varroa rumors. The verdict is still out with me.

Here's my question. Will new queens from 5.4 queen mothers have troubles when placed in 4.9 small cell hives/nucs/splits? Every swarm I've ever caught and placed straight into 4.9 foundation has superseded the queen within weeks. I also know that the cell size in the NICOT has sometimes been said to be a little large.

Re: Small cell queens & NICOT

>Here's my question. Will new queens from 5.4 queen mothers have troubles when placed in 4.9 small cell hives/nucs/splits?

I've only seen one queen too fat to lay in small cell and she was quickly superseded. The rest all have always done fine. I don't think the size of the queen cell affects the size of the queen as, unlike a worker or a drone, the queen cell has lots of extra room in it and the queen grows as much as she likes, where a drone or worker cell is limited to just enough room for them.

Re: Small cell queens & NICOT

When I've introduced large cell produced queens to small cell hives, most times, at first the brood is very patchy, despite that they had a good brood pattern when on the large cell. However they slowly adapt.

That I can remember, I've never lost a queen, or had one prematurely superseded, solely because of the small cell. In other words, the incidence of this has been no greater than when introducing to large cell.

Re: Small cell queens & NICOT

Just to add to that, here's a photo of the queen laying an egg in my first ever, newly set up small cell hive. The queen and bees came from a large cell hive, and looking at her, I was worried she would not be able to fit her abdomen into the small cells.

But as can be seen here, she only puts the tip of her abdomen in, and extends it, which thins it down enough to do the job. This queen, as is typical, had a patchy brood pattern at first, but eventually came right and had nice full slabs of brood.

Some of my queens are now raised in small cell hives, and there does not seem to be any problem going the other way, ie, introducing a small cell raised queen, to a large cell hive. Also, I have discovered, queen size is standard. Wether they are raised in small cell, or large cell hives.